In The Land of Samsheo's Sun
by melonkitty
Summary: Upon Kel's return to Corus, she finds that Daine has an apprentice. Her Alanna and Daine herself wonder about the past of the girl. Samsheo of Dellio, the girl with the silver and gold eyes puzzles them all.  UNDER REVISION
1. The Apprentice

**Okay, I **_**really**_** wanted a fic like this to read, so when I didn't find one, I decided to write on for myself. And though my personal acquaintances might commit murder, I write this to satisfy my own rampant curiosity. ~melonkitty**

**ONE**

**The Apprentice**

_Kel paced. It was most certainly not her way to do so often but still, she paced. The animals on her bed watched her with uncertain eyes. Jump looked at the human girl with an odd understanding and unhappiness as she flopped on her bed._

_ Kel was twenty-five, she'd been a knight for years, but still she had not seen it all, and thought she never would._

* * * * *

While out in the practice yards she had been tilting, an activity she often did as a way to calm her nerves, she had seen a small girl, probably twelve or thirteen.

Behaving friendly enough Kel had finished and walked over to talk to her, but when she saw the girls face she had paused. The girl had two different colored eyes, one a bright silver, the other a startling gold, but a thick ropy scar ran down the right side of her face from her temple to her chin. She wore breeches and tunic in a light tan, with the large pockets on her tunic having many feather in it.

"It is nothing that can be undone Lady Knight." The girl said with a look of indifference.

Kel was startled by the girls voice it was accented, she came from a different land, but not only that, it was cold, slightly harsh and distant, a voice you would normally hear from someone who had nothing to live for.

"Forgive me, but may I ask your name?" Kel had nearly stammered.

"Sam."The girl said. "Sort for Samsheo, Lady Keladry." The girl said without changing her expression. The girl reached out her hands, taking Peachblossum's nose in her hands.

Then she smiled slightly, letting go. Then she addressed Kel with her blank expression. "You should give him a wash, M'Lady, there are some rather nasty fleas behind his ears." She said.

Kel moved towards the girl, but she flinched away. Samsheo looked scared for a moment, then walked up the hill at more of a restrained run.

"Wonder who she is…" Kel said more to herself than her horse.

* * *

Kel was eating dinner in the company of her friends as she saw the girl again.

The girl came in the doors slowly, casting her gaze around, until she happened upon Numair.

"Hey, Neal. That girl over there, Samsheo, do you know who she is?" Kel asked as she watched Samsheo lead the mage from the room.

"Supposedly she's Daines apprentice." He told her.

Kel grunted. "Daine, an apprentice? How long were we away?" She asked surprised.

"A little over two and a half years, Keladry." Cam a familiar voice behind them.

Turning, Kel beamed at the knight before her, her copper hair and purple eyes gave her away. "Lioness."

Alanna smiled. "Good to see you away from the front and in greater spirits." She said sitting next to the other Lady Knight.

"So, Daine has an apprentice?" Neal asked his former knight master.

"Yes." Alanna nodded. "She was in pretty poor shape when she first arrived. It was about a year back, she was dressed strangely, almost in a daze, saying that she sought the Wildmage." She told them.

"Her voice is strange, where does she come from?" Kel asked remembering the girls speech and how it chilled her.

"She come from a land she calls Dellio. No one but Daine can get her to utter more than a few words to a decent person." Alanna shook her head. "That child is scarred in more places than on her body, whatever happened, I want to kill the man that has caused her to fear everyone that approaches her."

"As would I." Came Daine as she stood behind them. "Excuse me for startling you."

They all looked at the Wildmage with understanding eyes.

"Sam…she's a handful, she is, if I can get her to tell me anything at all." She said surprising them with a look of utter concern.

"Daine, do you need me to come by tonight?" Alanna asked.

Daine nodded. Then she turned to Kel. "My shy apprentice has admired you from afar for a while, Kel, I would like you to come as well. Perhaps she will open up to some women who have been through hell."

Kel nodded. "I met her earlier when she was watching me tilt." Her Yamani face went up. "What happened to her Daine?"

Daine shrugged. "I don't know, unfortunately. All she ever tells me is how she escaped with her life. Where she comes from, all she can tell me is that she would have died. From what she says, Dellio is unforgiving towards those with the Gift. And from what I can tell, her Gift may be stronger thanany I have seen." Dain said as she walked away.

"That's saying something." Alanna commented.

"Indeed." Neal agreed.

* * *

"Daine?" Alanna asked as she knocked on the door quietly.

Kel stood at the door with her as Daine opened the door to her and Numair's rooms with a finger to her lips to silence them.

"Sam's in the middle of something, you can come in but be very quiet." She cautioned them.

The two women entered and were met with Sam floating two feet off the ground with her eyes closed, sitting cross legged with her eyes shut. A platinum haze surrounded her.

Numair glanced at the women who entered without a word as he watched the girl.

"Alright, Samsheo, give it a try now." He told her.

With that Sam's eyes opened and stared at the floor in front of her, watching as the haze around her flowed to the spot to materialize as a strange looking cat with gold eyes.

Numair watched without a word and when Sam slowly drifted to the ground he handed her a glass of water.

The cat walked over to Samsheo and sat in her lap. The girl was covered in a light sweat and accepted the water with a small thank you.

"That was rather impressive there, young Samsheo." Alanna commented.

Samsheo looked up, obviously startled and the cat in her lap stood up to look at Alanna closely. The girls eyes were distant. "I am pleased that you think so." She said quietly.

Alanna leaned down to hold out her hand to her. "If I may."

Sam stiffened, but held out her hand nonetheless.

As soon as the two brushed fingers, Alanna quickly withdrew her hand, as though she had touched a fire.

Numair chuckled. "I would advise not touching her right now. It would be like touching a bolt of lightning."

Daine smiled slightly at Numair, obviously sharing some silent joke.

Kel looked at the cat, as he sat in the lap of the powerful young mage. "What is hi name?" She asked as she looked into the girl's eyes as they seemed to return to the here and now.

"His name is Kishar." She answered, her accent making the A silent.

"You did well, Sam, I suggest you reel it in and let Alanna have a look at you." Numair told her as he went into another room.

Sam took a deep breath, closing her strange eyes for a moment and sighing.

"I know how much you like to have that freedom, little one, but it causes me grief each time you do that." The cat told her.

Everyone but Daine froze. Daine and Sam laughed. "Alright, alright, enough of that Kishar, would you leave your young mistress to the attention of the healer?"

The cat swung his tail in indignation and followed Numair's path.

"What manner of animal is that?" Kel asked in awe.

Sam looked up at her. "Kishar is an old friend of mine, I created him as a child in…" Sam looked out the window and let the thought drift without continuing.

"Samsheo." Alanna called placing her hand on the young girl.

A purple glow flowed into the girl slowly and Sam's eyes drooped slightly after a moment.

After a moment more her eyes opened wider. "I recommend you do not probe further." Sam said coldly as she stood and stepped away from the older woman's touch. "Doing so would only burden you."

"Sam." Daine called.

She snapped her head towards her mistress. "Why? You wish to know who I am and where I come from, when I have told you it would only hurt you. Must you push me so hard? You do not need to know." Sam nearly begged, tears forming in her eyes.

Kel stepped forward, splaying her hands towards the girl, who flinched away slightly.

"No one here wants to force you into something you don't want, that would be unfair." Kel said lightly placing her hand on her shoulder. "We get to where we are going by making choices that we want, then and only then do our lives mean something to ourselves."

Sam sighed. The women noticed that she held back the tears. "If you want to know, you need only search your heart for the worst that can happen to an innocent girl." She said quietly.

"Sam-" Daine began, as all three gasped.

"No, you want the story, and I can tell it, but I want you to tell no one of this. You truly mustn't, for then my life would be forfeit by the laws under which I was born." Sam said cutting her off.

"Alright." Daine said as they sat on the floor. "I won't tell anyone."

"You have my word as the King's Champion." Alanna said.

"I shall only swear if it doesn't prove harmful." Kel said after a moment.

Sam smiled slightly at her. "Then that's all I hoped I could get out of you, Lady Knight." She took a deep breath. " I come from a land called Dellio, far, far, to the north east. Nearly two years journey from here…"


	2. Princess, Brother, Patron

**TWO**

**Princess, Brother, Patron**

"In Dellio, anyone with a Gift, no matter what kind, is put to death before they reach the age of five years. Having a Gift is treason of the highest kind." Sam said. She loosened her strange clothes, settling for a while.

"What?!" All three women echoed.

Sam flinched from their shout and shrank back slightly.

"Why?" Alanna asked.

"Being someone who has the Gift, you have a patron god or goddess. I know that yours happens to be the Goddess, Sir Alanna. The law has been in place for all of Dellion history. If you serve your patron, you do not serve your King." Sam explained. "My mother was an unfortunate victim of this later in her life from another senseless law."

"Who are you? Over in Dellio, that is." Daine asked. "You carry yourself like a noble and a common-born and you talk as both as well, it becomes slightly puzzling when you switch from one to the other mid-sentence."

"My full name, as you know Daine, is Samsheo Ramishca Kindren _hal_ Eldon." Sha said. "I am a noble born, but women are not entitled to say so, and when in the presence of a man, you must speak as a commoner."

"That's barbaric!" Kel said.

"Not only so, but if you do not, you can be killed for your insolence." She told them quietly. "You may speak only to other women as equals."

"I fear I do not like where this is going." Alanna commented.

Sam laughed nervously. "I know where it is going and I do not like it." She said. She took a deep breath and continued. "Forgive me if it seems like I view this with little feeling, I had resolved not to speak of it, so it has somewhat faded in importance to me."

"Not at all." Alanna commented.

"Go on at your own pace, Sam, none of us would blame you." Daine told her.

Kel sighed and moved to stand. "If I may say so, it is somewhat dark, so I'll just-"

At the sound of snapped fingers the room was aglow in silver light.

Sam smiled as they all turned to her.

"For doing something like that I would have been executed." She said with a rueful smile.

Alanna held up her hand. "I have a question, of which you may not want to answer but I would like to know."

Sam motioned for her to continue.

"What is the name of the ruling family? You have said only your own name in all this, what is the name of the King and Queen, why do they allow all of this?"

Sam held up her own hand to signal her to stop.

In the short time that had passed for Sam to tell them so much she had seemed to grow older than her thirteen years. "To answer those questions, there is no Queen. There never has been, and never will be. There is only a King, and it is the King who created such laws many, many, hundreds of years ago."

"How do you live like that?" Kel asked amazed.

"We don't know any different." Sam said bluntly. She waved her hand and every candle in the room lit itself. "Like if someone has a Gift, they cannot help that they use it, it is a part of them."

"Go on, Sam." Daine said as she stood and poured drinks of fruit juice for the four of them.

Sam took the drink and regarded it coolly. "The ruling family has always ruled. There have never been any wars over the throne. For the entirety of Dellio's existence, one line has ruled it by the firstborn son." She took a drink. " The _hal_ Eldons are a proud family, one that reaches back far enough to claim that the gods gave us the land of Dellio."

"You're of the royal family?" The all asked.

Sam nodded. "My father was a cruel man, it was he who gave me this scar." She said tracing the one on her face. "My brothers and he were the ones who…" She faltered in her speech. "In Dellio, if the firstborn child is a girl the man may do what he like with her, no matter her age, or his own standing. It is no less for a King." She said with a look of stone one her features.

"You are a princess?" Kel asked.

Sam laughed. "Hardly, there is no such thing in my homeland." She reached up to her turtleneck like shirt and pulled it down to show many scars. "I know how much Daine dislikes those who misuse animals. You all have heard of a dancing court bear?"

They all nodded, looking sadly at her scars.

Sam finished her juice and set the glass down. "I was the entertainment of the court in Hamrilin. No one knew I had the Gift, but if they did I can imagine that would have been a better fate than the one I knew. "After my fifth birthday my brother, the Crown Prince, retired me, and left me to my own devices. My father was displeased with Mirikal to say the least, but he did not contest his son's decision." She put her shirt collar back as they continued to stare. "The men of Dellio are prideful and arrogant, you may call me a princess if you wish, but I was not so in my lands, therefore I am not here."

"This is the most you've said since entering Tortall isn't it?" Daine asked.

Samsheo nodded. "I have feared men my entire life, and will undoubtedly continue to do so, and I am sorry if I fear you all at times, my past is enough to give me reason. All people have darkness in their hearts, Dellions more so than any others."

The three women around her nodded their heads knowingly.

Sam stood and her cat came in from the nearby room.

"What's the story behind Kishar, Sam?" Daine asked.

Sam yawned once. "Kishar was an accident, he used to be human, his real name is Karmial Hundri _hal_ Eldon. He is my youngest brother." She said as she walked through a hanging tapestry and into another room.

"How did that happen?" Alanna asked turning towards the bizarre silvery creature.

The cat turned his eyes towards the knights and mage. "I was cursed by her patron." He said simply. "I cared for her, more so that I wanted to marry her to rescue her from our father. I wouldn't call it a curse." He turned to look at the door Sam had disappeared through. "I'd call it being charged by her patron with protecting her."

"She has a patron?" Alanna asked. "Who is it?"

"He is known by many names, but he has no definite name, many know him as the God of Dellio, here I believe you may not know who he is. In Dellio, men rule, women play no part in any making of a decision. I think you'd refer to him as Irony." He chuckled. "But if she found a way to reverse what happened, I wouldn't let her." He licked his paws.

"Daine, what is she learning from Numair, I thought she was your apprentice?" Alanna asked turning to her.

"She's learning how to control the stronger parts of her Gift." She answered, picking up Sam's juice glass. "Without Numair helping as I teach her, as well as other mages around, she would have destroyed something the first time she used her Gift."

"Before you say something more, you three, you should know, that when she left Dellio she wasn't exiled." Kishar told them as he walked towards Sam's door. "Her sentence was death, death by a year worth of torture, of which she narrowly escaped."

"How did she escape Karmial?" Kel asked.

He flicked his tail at her. "She used her Gift to kill our father." He said turning to face them. "But if you ask me, a part of her didn't escape." He vanished behind the tapestry, leaving three women in awe.

*** * * * ***

**[A/N: So...hey, any ideas on who I should make Sam's patron god?]**


	3. Legacy, Jon

**[A/N: So, the inspiration for Sam's clothes is actually Inuit. So if you would like to know a close comparison go ahead and google it. However, there are differences seeing as Tortall isn't a freezing wasteland. And forgive me for taking so long with this, things came up and I was truly hard pressed to get to a reliable computer. ~melonkitty]**

**THREE**

**Legacy, Jon**

"What are we going to do about her?" Kel asked.

Daine shook her head. "I don't want to do anything yet. She needs to learn and Numair and I are willing to teach her." She put down the glasses abruptly. "I can't believe I didn't ask her earlier."

"Daine, don't blame yourself, if she didn't want anyone to know no one would." Alanna told her. "I find it alarming that people with the Gift are executed merely for having it." She shook her head. Sam did not return, so they all parted ways for the night.

"Where is Dellio exactly?" Kel asked when they met again the next night.

"It's nearly a three year journey somewhat north east, far past Galla." Sam said as she came out of the room with lighter clothes on, meant for warmer weather.

"Three years?" Alanna asked amazed.

Sam nodded. "It took me three years, it might normally take less than two. You wouldn't like the place, for if you dislike the cold, then you shall hate Dellio. The place is virtually ice. It's all tundra and arctic cold. There we are carnivores and know nothing of exotic fruits and vegetables." Sam laughed slightly at Alanna's grimace. "The clothes I wear are cooler versions of the thick furs we wear mostly year round."

"Oh what I would have done had you come to me instead of Daine and I knew that you didn't eat vegetables." Kel said with a laugh.

Sam smiled. "But there is a summer there." She said wistfully. "Where all the ice and snow melts to reveal a color of green I have not seen here, it's so full of life. There is nothing to compare it to." She smiled thoughtfully. "It never lasts more than a few weeks."

"You miss it, don't you?" Daine asked as she saw the look on her face.

"I miss the land, the look and feel of it." Sam said as she nodded. "But if I were to go back I would be killed." She said looked forlorn.

"Sam, could you come here for a moment." Came Numairs voice from in the other room.

Sam obeyed and the other women poked their heads through the door.

"Look at this." He said as he handed a letter to her.

The parchment was strange, of a different kind than they ever saw in Tortall, darker and thicker. The writing was obviously in a different language.

"I can't read it." Numair told her.

"You wouldn't want to even if you could." She said as she put it down.

"So it's in Dellion?" Daine asked as she entered.

Sam nodded her head.

"What does it say?" Numair asked as he watched his students face.

Sam shook her head. "No, you don't want to know."

"Sam, this has an official seal on it, if you know what it says, I need to know; this could concern Jon." Numair told her taking back the letter.

Sam sighed heavily before she thumped into a nearby chair. "My eldest brother…"

"What about him?" Alanna asked meanly.

"He's coming." Sam said her eyes wide. "He's at the Gallan border. He'll near Corus within the month."

"Oh great heavens." The cat muttered as he climbed on to Sam's shoulder. "Sam, look at me…"

Sam shook her head.

"Sam, please, _look_ at me." He insisted, his gold eyes shining brightly.

She did and suddenly there was a loud impending feel, like a crack of silent thunder, and Sam was sitting on the floor, obviously unconscious.

"What was that?" Kel asked as she looked at those who had Gifts.

Everyone stared at Sam.

"That can't be right." Daine muttered.

"It is, unfortunately." Came Kishar's voice at Sam's feet.

They all looked at the cat. "It's why she sought you out." He told them. "This was how she killed our father, while bringing the very palace to the ground. She may have the Gift, but she also has a wild magic that has caused her much grief."

"Where do you think it comes from?" Alanna asked.

Kishar laughed. "I don't have to think." He told them. "Our mother was of the ancient group known as the Kindira, they are similar to the K'mir and the Brahzir. They out-date the _hal_ Eldons by millennia. She gets it from them. But it is also because they revered women that our father killed all of them, even our mother." He shook his feline head. "Sam is the last. And she is very much the only one with the magic of their society. Making her more at risk of emotional and magical overload."

"So you found it necessary to knock her out?" Alanna asked.

"No, I understand what he's saying." Numair said as he stood. "A person can only go so far. Wild magic can only be contained within the body, the Gift is in the mind. Those are conflicting forces. For them to exist in the same person for any length of time, much less their entire life, it would cause them great difficulty." Nuamir looked at the sleeping form of his student.

"What are we going to do?" Daine asked.

"Tell Jonathan, we can't keep this from him." Alanna said.

Everyone nodded their heads in silent agreement.

...

"Alanna, I'm glad that you brought this to my attention." Jon said as he stood in Numair's study a short time later. "So, this little one here has royal blood." He said looking at the sleeping Sam. "But does not wish to say it herself." He stated, less of a question.

"Yes." Alanna said. "She says that because there are no female royalty or Nobles in Dellio that she is not one in Tortall." Alanna sighed.

"I can understand her reasoning." Jon said. "However, here there are, and that is what she is." He sighed himself. "I can tell by your look that there is more than what you've told me."

Alanna nodded. "They don't allow the Gift at all."

"That isn't surprising there are many-"

Alanna shook her head. "No, _a__t all_, Jon, they kill you for it."

"That's… unfortunate." Jon said after a moment. "Why?"

"They see it as treachery. You serve a patron god or goddess in having a Gift, not your King. Even if you don't use it, they kill you, it's barbaric, it's cruel."

"You may think that way Alanna, but that is how it is, that is always how it's been. They don't know any different." Sam said from the floor as she woke. "It may be cruel, yes, but how could you see that way if you have never known anything else? I asked you that before. But you still do not know everything about me or my country. If I were to tell you now I fear that my father's life would be at risk if he were not already dead."

"What is the rest of it, Samsheo?" Jon asked.

Sam looked up at the King, and looked back down. "You don't want to know."

"Sam, the only way we can understand how to handle your brother as he passes through our country is to know, now please, answer." Daine told her.

Sam sighed. "They do not just kill the person with the Gift." She looked up and looked everyone in the eye. "If one can inherit the Gift, whom do you inherit it from? Whole families, clans, it doesn't matter. If you are seen as a traitor for having the Gift, then so would those you got it from." She looked away. "I have seen many killings like that. I would have been witness to my own if I hadn't done what I did."

"What did you do?" Jon asked as all the information sunk in.

Sam smiled slightly and then frowned. "That, is the one thing that I refuse to say right now."

"Understandable." Jon said. "I will not push you right now, what you have said is most useful. Thank you."

She did not reply, merely looked away and slid into her silence.

**[A/N Thank you for waiting if you did for this, I had a minor problem with my computer and my life conspired to make it worse so the patience is appreciated. Fell free to comment at your leisure, and if you have any questions feel free to PM or email me. ~melonkitty]**


	4. Bath

**[A/N As soon as I began writing another chapter it was as if I couldn't stop even if I wanted to, so I wrote. And in actuality, it was kind of… hard, considering what it said, so hopefully that's understood. ~melonkitty]**

**FOUR**

**Bath**

After Jon had left Sam had dashed out and disappeared.

"Where do you think she's gotten to?" Daine asked as they looked for her.

"How should we know?" Kel replied. "Maybe we should just give her some time."

They all nodded, and later headed towards the baths deep in discussion.

"I'm worried about her." Daine said. "She didn't want us to tell Jon, we need to explain ourselves to her."

"I agree, but she'll return in due time when she wants to hear it." Alanna told her.

When they entered they noticed that the baths were mostly empty.

Empty but for Sam soaking in a nearby bath.

They all gasped at what they saw.

Sam had noticed their entrance and sighed, but remained where she was.

Daine looked as if she were going to cry. Kel looked on in hatred and Alanna looked utterly speechless.

"Ask." Sam's voice brought them back to the present. "Go ahead and ask, I can see you're all upset."

The scars on her neck, they had seen, but the others they had not. All over Sams body, were more scars, some you could tell what had inflicted them, some you couldn't. Her skin looked to be one whole pale sheet; despite her tanned hands and face, it was heartbreaking. The scar upon her face pulsed a light red in the heat, bringing their focus back to her eyes.

As they readied their own baths, they slipped in with her. Daine went to her side.

"What happened, Sam?" She asked, nearly in tears.

"I asked if you had ever heard of a dancing court bear."

All three nodded.

"What happens when the bear misbehaves, or does something wrong?"

Daine didn't answer.

"Is this how it is, there? Women are beaten for-"

"Lady, Kel, no." Sam interrupted. "I said before, that by law, if the first-born is a girl the father may do as he wishes with his daughter. However that does not mean that it is accepted that women be beaten, it is against the law, and is punishable by death. Most fathers do not beat their first-born if they are a daughter. I've never seen any other girl who wasn't with some respect from her father. Mine… was different to say the least."

"Sam, why didn't you tell us?" Alanna asked as she ran her finger along a scar on her shoulder. "I at least can heal more of these."

Sam shied away. "Because I didn't want you to know, that and you had no need. I do not want them to be healed."

"Why not, surely they're painful?" Kel asked as she ventured over.

Sam smiled slightly at her. "I know your vendetta against all who treat others as though they are lower, Protector of the Small, and yes they are, at times, but they are a part of me in more ways than just the physical." She sighed a bit as she sunk lower in the water. "When I take a hot bath I feel every one, just as I could as they were inflicted." The three women flinched at her words. "But, they are what make me who I am."

"Just like being a page and a squire make us knights." Kel realized motioning between her and Alanna.

Sam nodded. "All my life, I knew the cruelty and the barbaric world of the men that made my country. I knew the actions that would follow if I did anything wrong." She sighed again. "I do not entirely remember what it was that made my father sentence me to death, but the full sentence was a year of torture and then execution. For anyone else he would have just killed them. He hated me in more ways than you could imagine. For the King to have sired a daughter before a son, it is seen as disfavor in the eyes of the God of Dellio, the one that gave Dellio to the _hal_ Eldons." Sam shook her head. "The ease of your politics astounds me. Compared to those at home it is simple, even when you view it as complicated." Sam laid back and sighed, lapsing back into silence.

For a short time, the other three were silent, but Daine broke it.

"That's the first time you've called it 'home'." She observed.

Sam didn't answer, and as Daine turned to look at her and repeat what she said, she noticed that Sam had fallen asleep.


	5. Past, Unyielding

**[A/N: This is one chapter that I had trouble writing, considering what is said and discussed between Sam, the women, and Jon in here. This is where the T rating comes in, and I would appreciate it if nobody yelled at me for this, it is sad and unfortunate, but it is needed for you to understand later. ~melonkitty]**

**FIVE**

**Past, Unyielding**

Sam tried to avoid the three women, and failed in the case of Daine, however, they cornered her along with Jon one night, as she stitched a mysterious garment as she sat on the floor.

"What is that you're working on cousin?" Jon asked.

Sam looked up for a moment, partially surprised that he was there, and then noticed Kel and Alanna. She sighed. "This is actually a ceremonial version of the clothes you see me wearing." She replied, holing up the brightly colored shirt.

"I never knew you could make such a thing." Daine said with her eyes wide.

"There are many things you do not know, Daine. Shirts and clothes where I come from are mostly made by your own hand." Sam said, slightly smiling as Kishar came and sat on her lap. Her face went into a slight geimace as she looked over those gathered once more.

"Samsheo, they are only worried for you, tell them for they ask in love, not rejection." Kishar said before falling asleep.

"That's quite a cat you've got there." Jon said.

"He's actually my youngest brother, his real name is Karmial Hundri _hal_ Eldon." Sam said. "He's trapped as a cat until I can figure out how to change him back."

"That's unfortunate." Jon said.

Sam smiled slightly. "It was his choice." She said with a far-away look.

"Samsheo." Daine whispered, bringing her back to the present.

Sam shook her head. "Sorry, she said."

"You have nothing to apologize for." Jon said.

Sam sighed. "I am correct in guessing that you all want me to tell you of my life, yes?"

Alanna placed her hand on Sam's shoulder. "We just want to know, Sam. We care about you, nothing that has happened could make us not love you, if anything, we'll only love you all the more."

Sam smiled slightly. Then she looked at Jon. "Before I begin, I have to ask all of you to understand that at the time that everything occurred that there was nothing that I could do. Nothing that would allow my life to continue, I would have died if I had spoken out about what happened. Also that I wouldn't have, spoken out that is, because I didn't know that there was anything different than that. The freedom I have here, it's more than I could have dreamt of at the time."

All four nodded.

Sam sighed.

"Take your time Sam, we have all evening." Kel said with a smile.

Sam smiled back, and then frowned. "I understand. But you of all here, you must promise me that you won't act rashly. I've put most of it behind me, as much as I hated it then I hate it more now, and you'll hate it more than me, because of how you've pledged to protect people from the very things that happened." As Sam spoke her accent grew more pronounced, signaling her distress.

Kel nodded. "I promise Sam."

Sam smiled slightly and sighed. She turned to Jon. "Everyone here but you knows that I endured much more than you think when you see me." She stood. "Excuse me for a moment." She turned and went into her room.

Jon turned to Alanna. "What is she doing?"

"I believe she may be changing." Alanna said. Daine and Kel looked to the tapestry that blocked the doorway.

There Sam stood, in short breeches and a white undershirt. Leaving much of her scarred skin to be seen.

Jon's eyes went wide at the scars he saw.

Sam went and sat back down reluctantly. "The scar on my face is from my father." She began, looking at her hands playing with a piece of thread. "My actual age is fourteen. It took me three years to get here from Dellio. My father… was a cruel man to me from the time I was born, till the day I killed him." She paused to look into the faces around her.

She sighed before continuing. "My mother, was a kind woman. And she forgave everyone of ever wrong done to her. Even when my father murdered her before my eyes."

Jon looked up at her.

"I have four brothers, each only a year younger than the one before them. Karmial is the youngest, at ten years old. When he was only a year old was when my mother was killed, I was five. Mirikal set me free from _entertaining_ the court soon after. With her dead, the native people, the Kindira, were all wiped out, save me and my brothers. They have no interest in keeping mothers traditions alive, I am the only one left." She looked at Jon. "Just as you are the Voice of the Brazhir, I am the Reacher for the Kindira. The last of the Kindira." Sam took a shaky breath. "My childhood…" She shivered. "I will not go into any sort of detail, for you only have to understand that from the age of two years my innocence was lost- don't look at me like that Lady Keladry. I warned you. I warned you all." Sam shook her head. "But you chose not to head my words."

"Sam. It is alright, we do not judge you for things that were out of your control." Alanna said, peering at the rage faced Lady Knight at her side.

Sam sighed once more. "It only gets worse."

"Samsheo Ramishca Kindren _hal_ Eldon, do not hide behind your pain." Jon told her. "Whether or not it was so where you came from you are a princess, and a person that matters to those who love you. We will hear you out, no matter what you say. Our opinion of you cannot change."

Sam smiled at him. "For the next six years, my father and my brothers continued to abuse me, but little Karmial never took part, he defended me from many of the guards." Sam shuddered. "When I would be caught disobeying an order I was imprisoned for a week with little food and torture."

Sam looked at Alanna. "During that time was when I lost myself."

"Lost yourself?" Daine asked.

Sam nodded. "I wasn't really living. I lived to avoid everything that would hurt me, but at that I failed. I guess you could say that I went mad. At that time I was only living to please, a life that I would wish no one to ever live. The days blurred until I could hardly differ night from day." Sam said looking at the floor. "I snapped, and yelled at my father in front of an audience. I do not remember any of what I said, but I do remember that I was soon silenced by his hand on my throat." Sam unknowingly brushed her neck with her hand. "At the age of ten, my father sentenced me to be tortured for a years time, and then executed."

"Child-killer." Kel mumbled.

"I don't understand how you could go through living like that at all Sam." Daine said.

"If that is how your brother will act upon travelling through my kingdom then he had better watch his actions." Jon said. "I would like for you to teach me your language Sam, if you could."

They all looked back at her, she was still staring at the floor.

"That isn't all of it, is it?" Alanna asked.

Sam shook her head. "The year was nearly over." She said, a far-off look entering her eyes. "I was so _tired_. My body was ruined, my life was over. I wasn't even living anymore. I was more of a doll. A girl in a forgotten cage. I could hardly remember my own name, much less the names of those who gave me life, even my mother, I can't remember even now. I didn't want to live another day."

"Sam. Tell me that you didn't do what I think you're saying you did." Daine told her.

Sam turned to her. "You have told me a story, where you stopped your own heart and Alanna had to save you." Sam's silver and gold eyes turned sad and mournful. "I cannot bear to lie to you, now that I have told you this much, Daine."

Daine looked like she was about to cry.

"I took my life." Sam said bluntly, gaze returning to the floor. "I need not say how."

"Then how are you here, today, alive and well?" Kel asked.

"No doubt, you understand that a mage very often serves a god. I do, I serve a god just as much as Alanna serves the Goddess. The gods did not allow me to die easily." Sam frowned. "I was told that I had something to do, that it would take me a long time to find out, and I still haven't."

"Sam." Alanna said. "I know that there is more, you said you killed your father, how did that happen?"

Sam smiled. "They were dragging my body through the Grand Hall, when I returned to the living. A bright golden light, and there I stood, in the middle of ten guards, my father, Karmial, my other brothers Jestus and Harun, and Mirikal. Karmial took one look at me and ran over to hug me. Father was beet red and furious. He yelled for the guards to kill me."

Sam shook her head and moved to get up.

Dain grabbed her face in her hands. "Sam, let it out. Let it go. Please, don't put those walls back up. We want to help, what you say cannot change anything. It is in the past."

"Hardly." Samd said darkly. "I remember everything about that day with unnatural clarity, I would rather forget it if I could."

Sam sighed and extracted her face from Daine's hands.

"My father began to yell. Jestus, Harun, and Mirikal all looked at me as though I was the god in that room." Sam looked out the window. "No matter what occurred I was still very weak, and not in the right frame of mind. My control was… nonexistent to say the least. The palace, made entirely out of stone, very rare in Dellio, began to crumble. I do not know if Jestus and Harun escaped the falling rubble as Mirikal did, but my father was lucky enough not to be crushed." Sam looked back to them. "I murdered him. Plain and simple. I will not say how, for I hardly know that, nor what caused him to die, for I wish nothing more than to take that information with me to my grave."

Silence descended as Sam looked out the window once more.


	6. Distance

**[A/N I: Well, the first flame was slightly... ehh... I don't know what it was, but it is in the past. Glad to have that over with. First, some may be slightly confused at this sudden... change? in Sam's attitudes. Don't worry. It's actually who she is. The Sam that has been portrayed has been a little downplayed but here and the next chapter might hint at inner turmoil more than before. This is all there for a reason. Just bear with me... Don't get discouraged by anything... Go with the flow. K? K.]**

**[A/N II: So, the whole map thing... I know that if you look at a map in Tamora Pierce's books, Tortall isn't a Southern land. Well, to the North of Tortall is Scanra, and to the NorthEast you have Galla. Dellio is beyond those. If you want to think about it, it would be almost like going to Alaska, past Canada and the U.S.]**

**SIX**

**Distance**

For two weeks, Sam managed to completely avoid everyone, Daine and Numair included, how she did this was uncertain, but Alanna herself, as well as Jon found it slightly unnerving that she could hide so easily and not be found. Then, Alanna spotted the young girl in the stables, sitting on one of the stall walls, staring at the horses that came and went.

"Sam?" Alanna asked, uncertain if she would run.

"If I wanted to run, Alanna you would never have been able to find me." Sam said, flooring Alanna with how she nearly read her mind. Sam laughed slightly.

"Where have you been?" Alanna asked, instead of berating the younger girl with blows of worry.

Sam smirked, a rather strange expression to be seen on her face. "I have been…around." She answered mysteriously. "People often fail to notice that you can hide in plain sight rather than in the shadows, for when you do that, you cast the very shadows that they search."

"Very profound, Sam." Alanna commented. "But that doesn't answer my question."

Sam laughed a little. "I was in the forest."

"The Royal Forest?" Alanna asked, brows furrowing.

Sam nodded, jumping down from the wall. "After everything that happened, and everything I said, I needed time to myself. Time to reform my thoughts and decide what I wanted to do with…everything." Her face went blank and her strange eyes distant.

Alanna looked at her, and wondered, not for the first time, if Sam wasn't older that she said she was, for there was a look in her eyes, one that she hadn't noticed in herself until she had been told about it, but had seen it come about in Kel's eyes, in Daine's, even in the eyes of the Queen; a look that said the soul within had aged, beyond the years, in unfortunate circumstance. Her clothes were made out of soft deer hides, that had appeared to look like the tan that she normally wore. Under close inspection she looked as if she had indeed been in the woods this whole time.

"I would rather you didn't stare at me so, Sir Alanna, it unnerves me." Sam told her.

Alanna looked away. And as her eyes went over the stables, she noticed that Sam no longer stood next to her, but had vanished, as if she had never been there.

**….**

Sam paced back and forth. Then stopped. Scoffing, and returning to her pacing. Then she stopped, and leaned over the iron rail that surrounded her, looking down on the palace that sprawled below her.

Balor's Needle.

She stood on the balcony staring with a piercing silver and gold gaze at those below, those ignorant to her inner turmoil.

"You should not be up here." Commented a voice behind her.

She neither started nor took any noticeable confirmation of the man standing behind her against the door.

"Do they ever realize anything?" She asked after a stretching silence.

"Realize what?" Jon asked, looking at her with a new gaze.

"No one ever notices. They go about their business as though they have nothing better to do. They do not know of their importance, they do not care to learn it. They do not realize that they are the reason for so much." Sam paused, letting her gaze rake over those that couldn't bring themselves to look up and see her. "Suffering. War. Famine. Disease." She paused again. "Caring. Valor. Glory. Love. Compassion. Sacrifice."

Jon was slightly confused.

Sam went on. "They do not realize that they are the reason. You gaze at them every day. You see them go about their lives. They live in ignorance of how much they mean to you. The people. You fight for them. You rule for them, whether they care to realize this or not. They don't realize it." Sam said, sadness lacing her voice. "That, or they do not care to see it at all."

She suddenly turned to face him, and he gasped before she vanished.

For a moment, Jon would have sworn on his crown and kingdom, that Sam's eyes had been a startling ice blue.


	7. Tears

**SEVEN**

**Tears**

Samsheo Ramishca Kindren _hal_ Eldon looked at the Palace with cold eyes. She had sought haven after everything that had happened in her home land. She had sought to forget it all. Yet they wanted her to remember. They wanted her to tell.

And tell them she did.

And then she ran again, away from the memories that haunted her dreams, her every waking moments, not even letting her forget for a moment with the scars a constant pain source.

But she wanted it.

She wanted to feel the pain of her scars, she didn't want them healed. The made her who she was. They made her _her._

Sam shook her head. How she had ever had a moments peace evaded her. Her thoughts spun like a child's toy, playing with her feelings with reckless abandon.

She sat in a tall tree, a few moments after her mysterious conversation with Jon. She understood every word she had said. But the look on his face as she uttered them made her laugh.

They didn't understand.

Nobody could.

The world revolved unnoticed by those in it, they only saw the revolutions of their personal world. Their eyes were clouded.

Sam closed her own and sighed. Opening them she knew that her gaze had changed. It was a part of who she was.

If they had wanted to hear of her past, and not judge her as it was, then they needed to know of this.

They needed to know.

She heaved a heavy sigh and vanished for the third time that day.

….

"What is it Jon?" Alanna asked as he had them all assembled at the same time that Sam was debating internally.

"I saw Sam on the Needle." He said. Kel shuddered.

"I saw her in the stables earlier." She told him. "She seemed sad, almost…"

"Depressed?" Kel gave her the word.

Alanna nodded absentmindedly. "She said she was in the forest, trying to decide what she wanted to do."

"When I saw her on the needle, it was almost like it wasn't her." Jon said.

"What do you mean?" Daine asked, breaking her silence as she sat at the table.

Jon ran his hand through his hair.

Alanna scowled, Jon only did that when he couldn't figure things out.

"She was looking down at the city. She asked me if they ever realized everything that's done for them. I assume she was speaking of the people as they closed the market. She went on… It was somewhat confusing, it made me shudder to think that someone her age was thinking that way." He himself shuddered.

A low chuckle came from the other end of the table.

They all looked up quickly to fin Sam standing there in a black cloak, obviously made from bear skins.

"You shouldn't worry about me." She told them.

"Sam, where have you been?" Daine asked as she stood to go over to her.

Sam held up her hand, halting her in her movements toward her. "Alanna already told you I was in the forest."

They all looked at her puzzled.

"You have been missing for two weeks. We have a right to worry." Daine told her.

"No you don't." Sam snapped. "There are still things that you do not understand, some you can never. Things that I haven't told you, and never will if I can help it. You have no right to worry over me. You aren't my mother. I spent three years in the wilds of three different countries. I was hunted just for hiding because I was afraid."

Sam was breathing hard at the end of her mantra.

"I have the right to disappear if I wish to." She continued. "I have the right to vanish, without telling anyone where I intend to go because I am free. I'm free." At her sudden utterance of the words she began to cry silent tears.

Then she started to chuckle darkly to herself.

"You've told me that you just want to help me." She said at them, sneering. Then her gaze went to Jon.

He watched with wide eyes at her as her eyes changed.

Sam sighed, then took in the whole room.

The women all were gape-mouthed and wide-eyed.

"Nobody can hope to help me." She said. "I am alone. Jon," He turned to her as he heard his name. "As the Voice, you commune with all of the Brahzir. Imagine if there were none. That you had that burden, and nothing. The Voice without the Brahzir. All that history, all that knowledge, the emotions and memories of an entire people, yet no people."

"You would drown in it." He said, simply.

Sam nodded, her ice blue eyes shining. "I may have told you everything about what _I _ lived through, but there are still other lives that I remember."

She turned to walk out of the room, but turned back to look at them. "I won't disappear this time, but if I cannot be found, do not be surprised." She looked at them as her eyes faded back to their normal silver and gold before leaving.

"Jon?" Alanna asked after a moment.

"Yes?"

"I've never communed with you." Alanna told him. "But hearing that almost makes me regret it."

Kel and Daine nodded their heads, Kel's face showing her worry for once.


	8. REWRITE NOTICE

REWRITE NOTICE

At this time it has come to my attention that In The Land Of Samsheo's Sun is not entirely how I wished to portray the story. It is currently under revision, and you can expect a rewritten version of the first chapter within the week.

I apologize to any who read this story and are anticipating an update, but it should be worth it.

Thanks,

~melonkitty


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